Hannan Sarkar was a technically sound opening batsman who didn't quite live up to expectations. He was organised and patient at the crease, and was good enough to score half-centuries in each innings of a Test against Australia in Australia, defying a bowling attack which included Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Stuart MacGill for over five hours over the entire match. His 197-minute 76 in the first innings of that match poured cold water on the prediction of the late David Hookes, the former Australia batsman, who had said had Australia would wrap up the Test on the first day itself.

Hannan scored only five half-centuries in his 17 Tests, but three of them came in Australia and South Africa, which says a bit about his batting ability. However, after an extremely promising start to his international career, he was let down by an inflexibility of technique. In the space of two seasons, he was removed by West Indies left-arm paceman Pedro Collins thrice off the first ball of a Test match in Dhaka, Gros Islet and Kingston, making him the second player, after Sunil Gavaskar, to suffer that fate. Part of his problem with the early dismissal was the fondness of shouldering arms to the first few balls he faced, resulting in two of those infamous dismissals to Collins during Bangladesh's tour of West Indies in 2003-04. His last Test was against New Zealand at home where he scored 0 and 1 and was jettisoned by the exasperated selectors.

Hannan however continues to play first-class and Dhaka club cricket, though he has only two hundreds in the longer-version for Barisal.

Hannan's career lasted just 37 international matches, but he could have easily given more service to the country had there been more flexibility in his technique and a hungrier attitude.Mohammad Isam

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